But the score of construction men and office staff admit that they will have an uphill battle to get a penny out of the Corbridge-based tycoon as he has no assets or cash left to pay them.

Former site manager Mike Ryan said: "It's been nine months of hell. When Prudhoe pulled the plug last August we were all left without weeks of wages, lost holiday cash and no redundancy.

"To make matters worse, because of the mess he'd left things in we had to wait until November until we got our P45s. Therefore we couldn't sign on or claim unemployment benefit."

Consett-based Mr Ryan had worked for Prudhoe for 11 years and said he felt betrayed.

He said he is owed #7,500 in redundancy cash and unpaid salary, while fellow workers are owed up to #3,000 each.

Mr Ryan added: "We knew things weren't right after the collapse of his Engineering with Excellence companies in 1999, but when everything went down last year he just shot off without informing anyone.

"Since then we've not had a letter or even a phone call telling us what happened.

"But it's now clear Prudhoe has no money left so we'll probably have to get it from the Department of Trade."

Mr Ryan, who managed company sites from Kent to Glasgow, said as many as 320 former employees could have a claim against their former employer.

The workers' action is set for an initial tribunal hearing in June or July.

The new revelations come after the Chronicle revealed how Prudhoe was banned from being a company director for almost 15 years, after defrauding a bank of #325,000 on the strength of phoney offshore contracts.

The judge then said: "This is a very serious fraud and clearly requires a criminal investigation. Mr Prudhoe is clearly unfit to be a director for a considerable period."

A month later the Serious Fraud Office said that, along with Northumbria Police and DTI investigators, its probe into Prudhoe was spanning four continents and his debts were #41 million and rising.

In January Prudhoe was made personally bankrupt at a hearing at Newcastle County Court and two months later was also bankrupted in the USA.

Ten days ago his luxury seven-bedroom home at Bridge House, Corbridge, was put up for sale by the Trustee in Bankruptcy for #600,000 to help pay off some of the creditors.

Prudhoe meanwhile has spent the last four months jetting between the Far East, the USA and a private hideaway in Amman, Jordan.